In 2026 JIBC will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Certificate in conflict resolution, which laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Centre for Conflict Resolution.
What started as a collection of conflict resolution courses became a movement— Canada’s first post-secondary credential in conflict resolution. It drew on currents of social transformation already sweeping North America: a shared belief that conflict, handled differently, could be an opening rather than an ending. The early faculty who shaped this work didn’t simply teach skills. They built a practitioner community, developed a distinctive pedagogical approach, and helped give language and form to an emerging field in conflict fluency.
Whether you joined the Centre in its early years of “excitement, collegiality and creativity,” navigated the growing pains of expansion, the COVID-inspired move online, or carried its work into recent years — these courses have reached thousands of students who went on to bring these ideas and approaches into workplaces, families, courts, communities, and classrooms of their own. The ripples of that work are genuinely difficult to measure, and that is what makes it worth pausing to recognize.
CCR staff meet individuals from across BC who have taken a conflict resolution course or program almost every week. They often tell of how the course or program had a significant impact on their professional and personal lives.
The skills and perspectives developed didn’t stay in the classroom. They travelled with you — into your workplace, your relationships, your community. Collectively, the alumni of this Centre represent an extraordinary, largely invisible network of people who engage with conflict differently. That matters more than ever.
What are your stories?
View the historical course calendars and course descriptions in the JIBC Valut: https://jibc.arcabc.ca/calendars-viewbooks/centres-conflict-resolution-counselling-community-safety-and-leadership-1982
